Blu-Ray Wishlist of Fixes

This is probably gonna be one of the more obsessive threads, but what the frunk? I was wondering if anyone else is hankering for an honest to god accurate release of Trek on Blu-Ray? I mean, as close to original “Night of Broadcast” as possible, like The Twilight Zone Definitive Edition was.

What we have at this point is pretty spotty. The picture is gorgeous, but there are a lot of video and sound issues that I would love to see fixed, such as:

1. Actually including the true mono broadcast track. What we have is sometimes right, most times not. Comparing the sound mix of the Blu-Rays to the DVDs and laserdiscs brings up myriad changes. The Enterprise engine rumble in the exterior shots was very inconsistent in the original prints. After a while, it was dropped entirely, but on the discs, it is ever-present. Only a very few episodes or scenes omit the sound. Even on the “mono broadcast track,” it’s there. In the first season, a few episodes (like Miri) have the rumble up excessively loud, drowning out the captain’s logs. In the final two seasons, there was originally no rumble at all. Starting with the DVDs, it was put in and remains in the “original broadcast” track.

2. The opening credits of The Man Trap and Charlie X originally Gene Roddenberry’s “created by” credit. These were missing from the syndicated prints starting in the 80’s and restored for the DVDs. They were missing again on the Blu-Rays.

3. The electric violin theme was used only in the first 8 episodes, I believe. The DVDs restored it well past that, but never fixed the end credits, which all had the cello theme (aside from WNMHGB). The Blu-Rays kept a couple of violin versions (specifically The Corbomite Maneuver), but returned the rest to the cello theme.

4. A couple of episodes on the Blu-Rays have the new CGI credits no matter which option you choose.

5. The Menagerie part 2 uses music from The Doomsday Machine and the Fred Steiner Charlie X rerecording in place of the original tracks. Now that all of the music was beautifully preserved on album, this can be fixed. Other music issues (unrelated to copyright) are scattered across the three seasons.

6. The cross fade in the final act of WHMHGB (after Kirk calls the Enterprise) is now a jump cut. Yeah, big deal, but again, not “night of broadcast.”

There are more, but I’m being anal as it is. I’m just surprised there are as many non-copyright alterations as there are. I’d love to know what prompted some of them, aside from making it “surround sound.” I understand that stuff, which explains what goes on in the Hi-Fi track.

Other things would be lovely to have such as the previews back in their proper place, the pilots in the first season set, network ID tags and sponsor billboards and the various network and syndication promos. All of these could be stuck in as a seamless branching option. Music only tracks would be amazing, but with the CD set, that may be redundant.

I’m a huge fan of preserving the feel of what TV was like in the 50’s and 60’s, and having Trek put out with the extras would be sweet. But I would be happy with the sound and video issues addressed.

I can absolutely believe that of the second and third seasons. But many episodes in the first sound at least like what is on the laserdiscs. The Menagerie for one. However, they list these as the "original mono broadcast track," which for the most part, is simply false.

Like many fans of my generation, I audio taped the episodes in the 70's and listened to them over and over. I'm fixated on the sound, so a lot of this stuff jumps out at me and feels really wrong. So other fans' mileage my vary.

I'll be honest with you, I'm all for new Trek but some of the stuff you're asking for is pretty niche. I imagine you will never see these fixes on Blu-Ray. I suppose it wouldn't be out of the question for some future release on a new medium.

Yeah, I know, some of it is really not what anyone gives a lot of thought to. I'd be happy with an accurate sound mix, fix the genuine glitches and leave it at that. But Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy have a lot of that stuff, so someone thought of it somewhere.

Hate to be nitpicky (but I think this is a fair thing based on the thread ) but the WNMHGB is a cut not a jump cut. A jump cut indicates there is obvious missing footage. For instance, in one version of "The Cage" (I don't remember which one as on Netflix, they've made an effort to fix it -- it would be somewhere around 22:50-22:58), as they're leaving the briefing room following the "swat this ship as though it were a fly" speech, there are maybe 10 very obvious missed frames as it seems one of the officers (only listed as geologist on Memory Alpha) suddenly moves forward.

Me neither. It's always worked. Depending on the brand of player, you may have a few seconds of new effects before it switches over, but when that happens, I just restart the episode if it really bugs me.

A couple of episodes on the Blu-Rays have the new CGI credits no matter which option you choose.

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And as far as I remember, some of the new effects are still there even if you're watching the BDs in classic mode. That's what I've read, anyway. The point being: You can't have the original TOS in HD, not even the DVD TOS. I'd be perfectly happy with the DVDs upgraded to DVD, but they didn't even manage to release Enterprise in a satisfying manner on BD!

A couple of episodes on the Blu-Rays have the new CGI credits no matter which option you choose.

Click to expand...

And as far as I remember, some of the new effects are still there even if you're watching the BDs in classic mode. That's what I've read, anyway. The point being: You can't have the original TOS in HD, not even the DVD TOS. I'd be perfectly happy with the DVDs upgraded to DVD, but they didn't even manage to release Enterprise in a satisfying manner on BD!

Click to expand...

Source about the TOS Blu-ray's? I have them and have never noticed this problem.

A couple of episodes on the Blu-Rays have the new CGI credits no matter which option you choose.

Click to expand...

And as far as I remember, some of the new effects are still there even if you're watching the BDs in classic mode. That's what I've read, anyway. The point being: You can't have the original TOS in HD, not even the DVD TOS. I'd be perfectly happy with the DVDs upgraded to DVD, but they didn't even manage to release Enterprise in a satisfying manner on BD!

Click to expand...

Source about the TOS Blu-ray's? I have them and have never noticed this problem.

Click to expand...

I'm interested in a source for these rumors as well? I've never had any real issues besides the hiccup where the new effects play for a half-second before switching to the original effects on my old Magnavox player I bought in 2009. On both my PS3 and PS4, the playback is flawless.

I've never seen the "Remastered" opening titles when I've selected the original versions, but a few of the episodes do have the 2006 recording of the main title music on the mono track. It's been awhile since I've watched them, but "Miri" is an episode I'm thinking afflicted with this issue.